'I shalle send word in writing': lexical choices and legal acumen in the letters of Margaret Paston

Medium Aevum, Fall-Winter, 2008 by Alison Spedding

Crimes and misdemeanours

The other major category of Margaret Paston's legal vocabulary is that related to crimes and misdemeanours. The twenty-two relevant legal terms in her lexicon may be divided into those words that are general or descriptive, those signifying harm done to an individual, and terms indicating crimes involving property. Although property was of such pressing concern to the Paston family only five expressions are specifically relevant to this area. One of these, extortion (167.27), was used in a general sense by Margaret in reporting to her husband the gist of a speech given by Yelverton at the quarter sessions. Her use of the term robber (and robbery) (196.40 and 41), though, was only too relevant to her own experience, and appeared in a letter to John I describing the devastation at Hellesdon after it had been sacked by Suffolk's men in October 1465. She used the term in its correct sense, which implied the use of force or violence. When, however, she had used the word thief (129.60) seventeen years earlier, a term which implied the use of stealth rather than force in the illegal taking of goods, it was this furtive element of its meaning that Margaret intended the word to convey, rather than the act of stealing:

   I wot wel he wyl not set vp-on [??]w manly, but I be-leve he wyl
   styrt vp-on [??]w or on sum of [??]wr men leke a thef. (PL 129,
   lines 59f., Margaret to John I)

In this context the word has more in common with expressions describing an act of violence against the person, and indeed two of the three words from Margaret's lexicon of expressions associated with crimes and misdemeanours that do fall into this category--assault and bodily harm (129.33 and 129.53)--also appear for the first time in this same letter, one largely concerned with an attack upon James Gloys by John Wyndham and his henchmen. Given the subject matter, that the word affray (129.22) should also appear here in conjunction with assault is perhaps to be expected. The other two words associated with public unrest, insurrection and riots/riotous, together with manslaughter, occurred for the first time in letters written in 1461 and 1462 respectively (162.16 and 168.12 and 34).

As a logical extension to the theme of words related to wrongdoing, those describing the ensuing retribution are also well represented, from the initial arrest and the idea of correction to the sentence meted out (128.57; 180.66, and 200.55). Within Margaret's personal experience can be found use of the stocks and the concept of prison, although in the sense that Margaret uses the term it pertains to wrongful detention and subsequent release, rather than to a just punishment (161.11 and 169.2). It seems, though, that to be outlawed was a familiar enough occurrence for the loss of the Paston shepherd in this manner to be reported as a minor inconvenience merely necessitating the finding of a new one (128.71-4).

On other occasions, though, Margaret's choice of words could be seen as calculated to be more emotive, perhaps to lend colour to her writing or to influence the recipient, her husband, to take action. Thus, it is interesting to note that the most dire punishment, that of hanging, is referred to in a way calculated to emphasize the seriousness of the situations under discussion, and is used to convey a sense of threat, rather than report an actual occurrence. In connection with local unrest the emotive phrase hanged at their own doors makes the story all the more immediate: